Many people are conscious of hygiene. Such people often dread using public toilet facilities because of the inherent risk of cross-contamination when touching toiletry actuation devices of such public toilet facilities.
For the purposes of this specification, the term “toiletry actuation device” is to be interpreted to include any actuation device of a type commonly found in, for example, a public toilet facility, a washroom, or the like. Such actuation devices include flushing actuators, such as buttons, and levers, and the like, for example, for actuating flushing systems of toilets, and urinals, and the like, for example, taps, or faucets, door handles, actuators of automatic hand drying mechanisms, and the like, for example.
It has been found that un-hygienic substances, such as types of pathogens, and the like, for example, often reside on different surfaces in public service areas. In the case of certain organizations in particular, such as businesses concerned with food preparation, food production, the provision of health care, and the like, as well as research institutions, hospitals, laboratories, clinics, and the like, cross-contamination of such substances should be inhibited. Methods currently employed to inhibit such cross-contamination include vigilant cleaning schedules, the addition of active substances (such as Phenol™, or Virkon™, for example) and/or passive substances (such as ethanol, for example) in cleaning agents, such as soaps, for example, the provision of operable taps which open and close without requiring the taps to be operated manually (either automatically activated or non-hand operated), and the like.
It is an object of the invention to provide a relatively simple sanitary device which can be used to inhibit cross-contamination in public toilet facilities, for example.